


Nora's Paradox

by Rex_Lupin



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Near Future, Nora-centric, Nuts and Dolts Kid, Slice of Life, Time Shenanigans, magical lesbian spawn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:47:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28932780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rex_Lupin/pseuds/Rex_Lupin
Summary: A look into the life of Nora Valkyrie, from the moment she helps her parents get together, to the moment she finds them again.Or, why the Nuts and Dolts Discord is a bunch of madmen (and -women) whoreallyshouldn't be encouraging me to do things.
Relationships: Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	Nora's Paradox

**Author's Note:**

> Well? You wanted more. Happy?
> 
> You know who you are.

"Oh for  _ fuck's  _ sake," Nora Valkyrie groans, as both Ruby Rose and Penny Polendina once again talk past each other, desperately trying to ask each other out and somehow failing miserably. "Rennie, hold my punch." 

"This is not punch," Ren deadpans, taking a faint sniff at it. "It smells like Atlesian ale." 

"It's absolutely punch," Nora throws back as she sashays past several of the bargoers and blithely claps her arms around the dolts' shoulders. 

"Heeeeeey," she draws. "I have this  _ idea. _ Why don't we hang out for the evening? Just the two of you,  _ alllllll  _ alone, with Auntie Nora makin' sure nobody  _ interrupts  _ your date?" 

"But we are not-" 

"I haven't even asked-" 

"Shhhhhhh," Nora shushes them. "I've been watching you two alll evening and honestly, you're almost as bad as  _ Yang and Blake  _ at this point!" 

Ruby rears back as if completely offended, and Penny has gained a moderate amount of reproval into her expression. "But Nora!" 

"Yeah, no buts," Nora deadpans. "Now c'mon, I know a place..." 

  
  
  


When the two finally stumble back into the dorms next morning, faces flushed and beaming, Nora just waves cheerfully. "Name your firstborn after me and we're even," she jokes. Odd, she feels like a weight has been taken off her chest. Was the romantic tension of those two truly so overbearing? Nah, can't be. Yang asked Blake if that proposal was platonical or not just last week, Nora still isn't done with them... 

She puts the thought out of her head and carries on. 

<>

Nora doesn't have a lot of memories about her early life. One thing she does recall, however, is a very early memory of Mantle under a starry sky. But that's ridiculous, isn't it? Atlas only fell like, last year or so. 

Then again, she also has no idea how or why she was in Mistral either, yknow? It was such a long time ago that she thought of any of this. Odd. 

But she could swear she'd been looking for someone... 

<>

Nora stares at the baby. The baby stares back, with her mop of orange hair and big blue eyes. 

"We named her after you like you asked!" Ruby enthuses, her eyes literally sparkling. "Nora Valkyrie, meet Eleonora Rose-Polendina!" 

"Your name is a diminutive of hers, but it's still technically the same name," Penny adds. She's vibrating in excitement. "We were going to go with the short version, but she just looked so  _ regal  _ that we couldn't call her anything else..." 

"...Huh," Nora manages, ignoring a twinge of  _ hurt  _ in her chest, a hurt she's not actually sure what it means. "Didn't know my name was ever short for  _ anything." _

"It's probably a mouthful," Ruby picks up the train of thought. "We'll just call her Nora for short and Eleonora if we  _ really  _ have to distinguish between you two." 

"If you can't tell the difference between me and your  _ own baby _ then you have much bigger problems," Nora jokes. 

She wonders if Ruby would have had blue eyes if the silver eyes weren't a thing. Guess Little Nora didn't just inherit those... 

She ignores another twinge. 

<>

Can you have an out of body experience? 

Apart from Semblance shenanigans, Nora guesses. But she doesn't...  _ Think  _ she's being affected by one? 

Lately, she's been dreaming about seeing herself from the outside, just hanging out with Ren and Jaune and Penny and Ruby... 

Funny, she didn't realize self-admiration could apply like this. 

Nora wonders if she should talk to Emerald about it. 

<>

"Pan-cakes! Pan-cakes! Pan-cakes!" 

Nora and Little Nora are chanting in an almost eerie synchronization as Ren and Ruby bustle around the stove. 

There is laughter, and Penny is suddenly there, ruffling both Noras' hair. "You're rubbing off on her, Valkyrie," she giggles. 

"Am not!" Nora protests. 

"Uncle Rennie's pancakes are just the  _ best!"  _ her namesake adds, pouting fiercely. 

"Not Mom's?" Penny enquires gently, and Nora snickers at the sudden conflicted expression on Eleonora's face. 

"...What about both?" Little Nora tries to compromise. 

"Ren does it better," Nora herself grins, deciding on impulse to add her own gasoline to the fire. 

"It is sweet of you to say that," Ren says quietly as he places a stack of pancakes between the two of them, "But you shouldn't try to draw a wedge between parent and child, Nora." 

She feels a  _ pang  _ in her chest at that. Ren tilts his head at her. "Jealousy is unbecoming on you," he adds softly as he turns back to the stove. 

Jealousy? 

What does she have to be jealous of? That this Nora has parents and _she_ still doesn't know who hers are- _oh_ _fuck she's jealous._

<>

Nora hasn't thought about her parents in a  _ long  _ time. So long that she has forgotten their faces. 

She wonders what they would think of her. Would they be proud of the life she has lead? Disgusted? Something else entirely? She doesn't know. 

Heh. 

Good thing she's going to find out soon, isn't it? 

Just never in a manner she'd have ever predicted... 

<>

Nora's reeling. 

In the background, or was it foreground? Penny and Ruby are still in shock. They are about to snap out of it and switch gears to panic, but Nora isn't paying any attention to it. 

She  _ remembers  _ this. 

The 'field trip' into Penny’s -  _ Mother's -  _ research lab... 

Penny...  _ Mother...  _

Ruby...  _ Mom...  _

"Oh," Nora whispers as she relives the memory of just... Secretly turning on a machine with pretty lights, a machine she now knows is a fancy teleporter Penny was working on, because  _ she herself  _ had tampered with it last night, trying to figure out why it had looked so goddamn  _ familiar...  _

Appearing in Mistral at the correct point of the exit coordinates, roughly speaking, but years and years in the past... 

Nora shuts her eyes, furiously rubbing tears out of them. No. She won't be thinking about that. She won't! It's a period of her life she's been trying to forget for a  _ reason...  _

"...just, somewhere else!" says Ruby's panicky voice as Nora tunes back in. "Yes! She's somewhere and not... And not..." 

Oh. 

Nora's been so caught up with her personal revelations that she just... Completely missed the fact that Ruby and Penny just  _ lost their daughter.  _ Except not really? But in every meaningful sense... 

"We must find her," Penny says, in a shaking voice, and that's the moment Nora knows she can't keep her revelation to herself. 

"She's right here," she says quietly. Oh no, and now  _ her  _ voice is shaking too... 

A burst of petals and Ruby is next to her, looking around frantically. " _ Where!?"  _

Oh. 

She hasn't... 

"Right here," Nora repeats, and she feels herself about to cry. "All along." 

Penny is walking towards her, and there's shock and realization on her face. "What?" she asks softly. 

Nora breaks down. 

"So it turns out that my real parents were under my nose all along," she sniffles. Damnation, this is so... So... 

"...Nora...?"

_ Mom,  _ she allows herself to think as she looks Ruby in the eye. Somehow, she manages a broken smile. "Hi, Mom," she croaks. "Been a while." 

Ruby and Penny, no,  _ her parents,  _ suffocate her into a desperate hug. 

At long last, Eleonora "Nora" Valkyrie Rose-Polendina knows where she's come from. 

Even though she's been  _ home  _ for years already. 

  
  
  
  
_ God,  _ this name is a mouthful. 


End file.
